In 2019, aftermarket industries face many challenges. Multiple disruptors, including evolving competition, channel digitization, as well as increasing quality and compliance requirements, are forcing aftermarket industries to meet these challenges with new approaches, including 3D scanning technology.
Let's look at some of the benefits of 3D scanning for aftermarket industries.
Product development
As manufacturers continue to innovate in their respective fields, aftermarket industries face a rapidly evolving demand for new product development on parts and components. What's more, the timescales for getting these parts and components to market are becoming ever shorter.
Many aftermarket suppliers use 3D scanning technology to accelerate product development and prototyping. Working on new and complex parts and shapes, R&D teams use 3D scanners to digitize manufacturers' equipment, to create, modernize and optimize parts, and thus ensure their optimum fit first time.
Reverse engineering
Often, aftermarket industries have to deal with obsolete CAD files of existing parts (or no CAD files at all). This not only slows down the design process for new or custom parts, but also prevents aftermarket suppliers from being able to sell these parts online or integrate them into manufacturers' ERP systems.
Using 3D scanning, engineers can quickly take all the measurements of an existing product and recreate highly accurate 3D models for later use. The benefits of 3D digitizing go even further: 3D digitizing makes it possible to reverse engineering competitors' components, to enhance and expand existing product portfolios.
Quality control
The secondary market industries must align themselves with ever more stringent and constantly evolving standards, whether demanded by their customers or regulators.
Portable 3D scanners enable R&D and quality control teams to carry out inspections during the prototyping or production stages of a product's lifecycle management process. In this way, sources of error in the design or tooling stages of a part can be quickly identified and corrected, helping to avoid costly bottlenecks during mass production and product recalls. 3D scanners can also be used during the product certification process.
The benefits of 3D scanning will undoubtedly have a positive effect on the continued growth of aftermarket industries. 3D scanners are becoming an essential tool for any aftermarket supplier looking to improve product development, quality and long-term commercial success.
By Simon Côté, Product Manager Creaform